Pat retired to Toodyay after 40 successful years in academia in six countries. While coping with post polio fatigue, and being the “wrong” sex, she not only won grants to support the research students and technicians whom she supervised, she also lectured medical biochemistry; directed a centre of excellence; sat on university and commonwealth government committees.

When appointed to the position of sexual harassment officer at UWA, a notice went on the blackboard which read “If you want to be sexually harassed, see Pat”.

As well, Pat’s extensive research program contributed to knowledge of steroid hormone synthesis.

Once she moved to Toodyay Pat joined the learning centre and ran a series of discussion groups about science, taught grandmothers biochemistry, bought 4,000 books from an antique shop in UK and had them transported to Toodyay, and qualified as a book binder and repairer.

While enjoying the magic of the Toodyay bush from her study window, Pat wrote six books and benefitted from sharing them with the other Toodyay writers.

Pat continues to write. She is working on the sequel to Enigma: 1960 – Really?:1961. As well she writes with the Katherine Susannah Pritchard writers in Northam. Here is one of her recent pieces:

I’ve lost my plot
It floated off in a micro-dot.
And it described my life; the lot.
So I have to decide whether to continue or not.

What was my plot?
Has it slipped into a slot
With thousands of other clots’?
Or was it original, or what?

Let me see, I like to write.
Did I have to fight
To find the time to write each night?
And did I have time to fly my kite?

I needed to plan to write while it’s light.
Was my plot on that micro-dot? or was it a blot that took off in flight?
Or fright?
Oh, where can I find my missing plot that’ll tell me how to find time to write?
— © Pat Stevenson 2017

What Pat stands for is best summed up by her favourite description of the scientific mind:

A Mind, Nimble & Versatile enough to catch the Resemblances of Things, which is the chief point, & at the same time Steady enough to Fix & Discern their Subtle Differences. Endowed by Nature with the Desire to Seek, Patience to Doubt, Fondness to Meditate, Slowness to Assert, Readiness to Reconsider, Carefulness to Set in Order, & neither Affecting what is New nor Admiring what is Old, & hating every kind of imposture.— Francis Bacon in p 151 of “Selected writings on the interpretation of Nature”, NY Random House, 1955.